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Sorry for the sporadic posts about who knows what all the time. I feel like that’s the new purpose of this blog. It’s no longer a food only blog, no longer a chronicle of my past weight loss or the many races I have ran, but instead just random — just like my life :)

This weekend there are some very exciting things going on that I felt the need to tell you about.

Notice the teeny sign at the bottom and then check it out in the background :) If you are interested in seeing what it’s like right now, check out Ashlee’s photos on or search #traderjoeslou on Twitter.

I’m waiting until Monday to go because I saw the pictures of the line this morning for the grand opening (you would have thought it was Black Friday) and my good friend Mari says to avoid that place at all costs on the weekends. And when Mari tells you something, believe her ;)

It’s a free community festival featuring all sorts of things — music, art, crafts, food, coffee, workshops, yoga, massage, etc. I will be there with the Louisville Vegetarian Club selling vegan baked goods and of course, promoting a plant-based diet.

Photo courtesy of Louisville Vegetarian Club Facebook page

There will be trick-or-treating, food trucks (can’t wait to eat Morel’s again!), and so much that there’s no way I could contain it all in this post. You will just have to come!

However, since I am not above a shameless plug (or two), I have to tell you my friend Kristin will be there selling her crocheted goods and jewelry at the KB&T booth :) You can also check out her esty site if you can’t make it on Saturday.

Photo Courtesy of Kristin's mom :)

Last but not least, on Sunday from 5-7 p.m. my church, Hunsinger Lane Baptist, is having a Fall Festival! And I’m in charge!

There will be a lot of stuff for kids as you can see above so if you or anyone you know has kids, bring ‘em on out! We will also have adults there hanging out and socializing. I’m hoping to make a lot of new friends through this event. Everything is free! This is my first year being the director and I have learned a lot already and have a lot of ideas for next year.

As you can probably guess after reading this post, I have taken a day off on Monday to recover (and make that inaugural trip to Trader Joe’s)!

I am! I make lists for everything. From your every day “to do” lists, chores, Christmas lists, things I want to do before I’m 30 (the days are dwindling on this one!) I am always making lists or leaving notes for myself to get things done.

Do I always check everything off my list? No, absolutely not! But it is a way to help me organize my thoughts, places I want to go and to remember things that I might otherwise forget to do (this is especially relevant to chores or buying birthday cards, things I don’t do every day).

My best friend often refers to list-making as part of our “only child syndrome” which I totally agree with but I think I’m also kind of obsessed with organization in general, including my thoughts and ideas. Although my lists aren’t always organized…some are on paper, some are on my Google Calendar, some are on post-it notes at my desk at work. Sometimes I lose them or forget where they are ;-)

But the reason I decided to post about this today is that “to do” lists in particular are causing me problems on the weekends. Now, I am able to get A LOT of things done on the weekends since I am off from work and I write down everything I want or need to do before I go home on Fridays. But I also end up absolutely exhausted, I’m talking feet hurting and everything because I do too much. Sometimes by Monday, I am so tired and sore from the weekend that getting up and going to work is almost impossible.

On the weekend, I think I finally have time to do everything and go everywhere. A friend of mine even joked to me recently that all of my Foursquare check-ins were wearing HER out! When other people start to notice, then it’s really a problem!

A typical weekend for me would include getting up early on Saturday morning, going to yoga, grabbing a coffee, grocery shopping, lunch, fun shopping (Target, the mall, etc.), maybe get some gas, stop by a bookstore, oh I forgot something and have to go back to the grocery…before I know it, it’s dinner time. And I’m ready for bed. Sunday is pretty much a repeat of the same only instead of yoga and coffee, it’s church that I get up early for. And I’m usually scrambling around to get everything done at home that I neglected on Saturday while I was out and about.

So this weekend, I have decided that I want to be productive but I also want to make time to rest and take a load off since I do work all week. I don’t want to wake up on Monday morning feeling like I ran a marathon. I have a lot of energy, but I don’t need to completely deplete it!

What to do? Completely throw the list out? Well, no, some of my errands are going to be kind of fun. Like using the Whole Foods Living Social voucher I scored this week and I really do want to start baking with the three large cans of pumpkin that are now in my pantry. I also want to take a yoga class and take Suzie to the dog park, oh and grocery shopping…can you see how I end up here?

What I need to do is set some priorities. My Google Calendar also really opened my eyes to just how busy I am, both during the week and on the weekends. It’s a good tool to use because I know where I need to be and what all I’ve got going on now and in the future, but it’s also got way too many things listed on it. I need to cut back. So this weekend, I am going to challenge myself.

Since this is a post about list-making, here is the list of the only things I absolutely have to do this weekend:

Grocery shopping

Laundry

Wow, short list, huh? I can’t believe that is all I have to do and the list I was working on before is miles longer. Now, let’s throw two fun things on there…

If nothing else gets done but those top two, then everything is okay. If I get to do one fun thing and one relaxing thing, great. If I get to do all 6 things I have listed, it would be awesome and chances are I wouldn’t be too worn out, assuming I don’t do them all on the same day, except napping, that has to happen both days!

It also looks like I will spend more than a few hours of the day at home. I feel better already. Now I just have to keep it up. And not add anything to my list.

What about you? Is your life over-organized and yet still full of chaos? Are you able to relax on your days off or do you go back to work feeling even more tired than you did at the end of the week?

It’s raining all day today but there is nothing wrong with a day spent hanging out on the couch with my dog, going to a yoga class and later knitting with a friend. It’s a new hobby I’ve picked up, I’ve also been crocheting. I will post about this soon.

I had the pleasure of trying out a new gym this weekend thanks to my friend Renee.

She is a member of Urban Active, which has several locations here in our city. I’m actually thinking about joining once my 7-day pass expires because I really want a place to use on the weekends, a place that offers great classes and a place to go if work cancels due to snow!

On Saturday, I attended a Zumba class, only the second one I’ve ever been to. It was great!

The last time I did Zumba, I had a hard time keeping up with the foot work, but I was much better prepared this time. I felt like I kept up really well with everything and it was the first time I remember “letting go” and not caring what I looked like as I was shaking everything! I was a sweaty mess when we left too…always a good thing :)

Then yesterday, I went back and took the “Urban Iron” class which is what you all probably know as Body Pump. It’s a group class with barbels and you get a full body workout in 1-hour. The instructor was 7 months pregnant, which also inspired me because if she was still doing it, so can I!

I only struggled with two areas during class: chest and abs. I put too much weight on my bar for chest presses, so about 3/4 of the way through the set, I had to take some off and jump back in. Then our last set of abs had us doing lots of planks and my arms were so tired from everything else that I had to let myself down a few times.

But I actually expected to struggle with squats and lunges or shoulder presses, but I was totally wrong! I love it when you get surprised like that ;-)

On the weekends, I usually just take it easy, count grocery shopping as exercise, etc. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I definitely feel 100 times better today knowing that I had such an active weekend!

It helps that the weather was spectacular…we hit 63 yesterday! Unfortunately, it’s not sticking around, but it’s not too terrible either. We’ll be in the 30’s and 40’s this week and hopefully Spring is right around the corner.

I was actually planning to run yesterday but I remembered a commitment I made to get my dog healthy, so I took her for a nice hour-long walk instead. It was good for both of us!

I did a major grocery shop today and managed to spend just $45! Including…

Most of the above is Josh’s, save the Larabars and huge can of pumpkin :)

And…

I love buying fresh veggies as opposed to frozen. They just have so much more flavor and now that I re-discovered my steamer, I look forward to making them this week!

I went to three stores today: Meijer, Kroger and ValuMarket, after I studied their ads online to see who had what on sale. Josh remarked that soon we won’t have to have as tight of a budget (his car is almost paid off), but I said that would not change my “style” of shopping.

I still plan to be on a budget and shop for the best stuff for the best price, I just may be able to splurge on a high priced item every now and then ;-)

For dinner tonight, I made another strange use of an avocado:)

I cooked up a serving of coucous and stirred in some green onions (chopped) and a slice avocado, then topped it all with salsa. It looked good, sounded weird, but tasted amazing.

I had my dinner with some vino!

I got this bottle at Meijer for $4 and I had never heard of the brand before so I couldn’t wait to try it!

The color was a very dark red and it tasted a lot like Shiraz to me. Pretty light and crisp for a red. But I’m no wine expert ;-)I pretty much drink it all!

You may have noticed my blogging has been sort of random lately.

I decided that for now, I’m just going to write about the “new” stuff in my day instead of making this a really boring food journal. So sorry if you really wanted to know what I had for lunch today, ha ha.

Luckily, I’m constantly trying new foods, combinations or recipes so it should be easy to keep it going for a while. We’ll just see where it goes.

I’m sorry to see this beautiful weekend come to an end but it’s time to get back to the normal routine and I’ve got to plan out a really awesome strength routine for tomorrow!

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Since May 2008, I have been blogging about healthy eating and weight loss/maintenance. I lost 70 lbs in 2007 and now I'm working on maintaining that loss through healthy eating, exercise and a peaceful vegan lifestyle. Any questions? Email me at seesaraheat@gmail.com

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